DID YOU READ

On DVD: “SalÃ², or the 120 Days of Sodom,” “Television Under the Swastika”

The most fabulous and fascinating thing about Pier Paolo Pasolini’s notoriously terminal film “SalÃ², or the 120 Days of Sodom” (1975) is its intractability, its single-minded evasion of traditional matters of visual pleasure, narrative, spectator experience and thematic thrust. Calling it a “masterpiece,” as transgression-obsessed critics have done, or an “abomination,” as many Italians, clergy and stuffed shirts have done over the years, or even a work that could be judged as simply good or bad, thumbs up or thumbs down, is not only unhelpful but ridiculously wrong. In many ways, the movie stands outside of cinema, and art culture  which is, of course, exactly where the Marquis de Sade himself has long stood. Sade didn’t write books  stories meant to be read progressively in time for purposes of empathy and enlightenment and entertainment  he was the first hell-and-high-water oppositionist, assembling massive ramparts of words and ideas intended not as art, but only as testaments to a tireless antiestablishmentarianism. He didn’t care about his readers, their interest or arousal or even disgust; Sade only cared about building his unreadable castle of protest. Pasolini had always been a much more socially responsible, and politically savvy, artist, but with “SalÃ²” he followed Sade’s example and managed the unprecedented: he made a film the viewing of which is incidental, but the existence of which is fundamental.

Which is all to say that “SalÃ²” is no goddamn fun, a film with only a metaphorical agenda to recommend it, a movie that seeks to be repetitive and depressing and inhumane for the sake of its metaphors. Is this all to its credit, or not, and why or why not? Every viewer will have his or her own answers, and a lifetime of cinema familiarity will not help. “SalÃ²” is not, at any rate, the film-to-be-feared that its reputation maintains, a reputation that’s grown like cellar mold thanks to the film’s censorship history and erratic availability on video. Pasolini’s initial idea, apparently, was to film Sade’s book straight, as an 18th-century debauch which would helplessly excoriate the indulgences of old-time aristocracy. But then it occurred to him to transplant the action  four noblemen sequester themselves in a manor house with a herd of young boys and girls, and indulge their every sadistic whim  to SalÃ², the northern Italian town in which a post-arrest Mussolini was placed by the Nazis in 1943, and where the new, short-lived Fascist government was formed, abetted by the local landowners. The specificity of SalÃ²’s history as a semi-forgotten cesspool of power abuse helps Pasolini’s critique, as long as you don’t worry much about history. Otherwise, the film lays out a timeless litany of humiliation and violence, perpetrated by the four implacable old gargoyles (including Paolo Bonacelli, recognizable as Rifki in “Midnight Express”) upon a platoon of teenagers (all between 15 and 18), which include bondage, rape, coprophagy, torture and mutilation. (Of course, none of the action is either hardcore or snuff-ishly “real.”) Pasolini, perhaps sensibly, films it all with deliberate gracelessness; there’s not a single titillating or exciting moment amid the stiff-legged mayhem. “Pleasure,” as these hedonists use the word, has left the premises.

There is no arguing with Pasolini’s sincerity  “SalÃ²” is simply too dour, too dogged, too joyless to be mistaken as pulp or pornography, which is why, I suspect, it has disturbed so many. (True pulp, no matter how realistically executed, has a juvenile energy that gives its game away. Pasolini fastidiously avoided zest.) Helplessly, in such a sex-fueled movie, there are questions of judgment  why would Pasolini, a famously gay director and author, make a film in which the primal villainous act is anal sex? (In fact, as per Sade, the four aristocrats outlaw vaginal sex at the onset of festivities.) Sex itself is a troublesome tool, subject to changing norms  violating someone sexually is still taboo, but the various types of sex practice Pasolini uses here to illustrate evil and injustice don’t seem so satanic in the age of the Internet, when horses and water sports and nipple clips, ad infinitum, are as available to every ninth-grader as a SpongeBob Spitwad game. An extreme view might conclude that while Sade’s position was irrationally liberating, a true defiance, Pasolini’s is a conservatism (fear of sexual excess) wrapped in the enigma of liberal social criticism.

But that doesn’t seem quite right, since “SalÃ²” is so effectively soul-depleting, however jaded we may be, and since Sade’s full-on anarchy is thankfully unfilmable anyway, and since Pasolini is correctly focused on the violence of the movie’s action, and hardly at all on Sade’s various consensual scenarios. Part of “SalÃ²”‘s mystique has been Pasolini’s still-unsolved murder, mere weeks before his film’s premiere, which lent the work a scary kind of requiem cachet. If Pasolini had lived to make ten more films, how would “SalÃ²” have been viewed, as a mortal keening, or just a bizarre extremist hiccup in a rangy and thoughtful career? The extraordinary Criterion package comes with a second disc of docs and interviews, and a book of seven original essays, each trying to vet the movie’s elusive nature.

The sunny reality of fascism, if you will, is visible in all of its banality in Michael Kloft’s “Television Under the Swastika” (1999), a German TV doc that makes use of the exhumed 35mm footage broadcast on Third Reich television beginning in 1935. The Nazis didn’t quite invent TV  otherwise, there’d have been no mention of it in Hollywood fluff like “International House” (1933)  but they were the first to get it up and running as an industry and as a social phenomenon, beginning with light entertainment broadcasts to “television parlors” frequented only by the Reich’s crÃ¨me de la crÃ¨me, and eventually using it to record and broadcast the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The near-instantaneous spontaneity of TV made it of little use to propagandists at first (Goebbels was horrified by his own unrehearsed image), and so the footage here provides a doubly-grease-painted portrait of Nazi life: cooking shows, housewife training films, rallies, dance acts and uncontrolled footage of Der FÃ¼hrer processions succumbing to large-crowd entropy. Propaganda can be beautiful, too  as with the wartime footage of five one-legged runners, all wounded vets, humping enthusiastically over a track & field obstacle course, in a vision not even Monty Python could’ve matched.

[Photos: “SalÃ², or the 120 Days of Sodom,” Zebra, 1977; “Television Under the Swastika,” Spiegel TV, 1999]

“SalÃ², or the 120 Days of Sodom” (Criterion Collection) and “Television Under the Swastika” (First Run Features) are now available on DVD.

The Best Of The Last

The end is near. In mere days Portlandia wraps up its final season, and oh what a season it’s been. Lucky for you, you can watch the entire season right now right here and on the IFC app, including this free episode courtesy of Subaru.

But now, let’s take a moment to look back at some of the new classics Fred and Carrie have so thoughtfully bestowed upon us. (We’ll be looking back through tear-blurred eyes, but you do you.)

Couples Dinner

It’s not that being single sucks, it’s that you suck if you’re single.

Cancel it!

A sketch for anyone who has cancelled more appointments than they’ve kept. Which is everyone.

Forgotten America

This one’s a “Serial” killer…everything both right and wrong about true crime podcasts.

Wedding Planners

The only bad wedding is a boring wedding.

Disaster Hut

It’s only the end of the world if your doomsday kit doesn’t include rosé.

Your Portlandia Personality Test

Carrie and Fred understand that although we have so much in common, we’re each so beautifully unique and different. To help us navigate those differences, Portlandia has found an easy and honest way to embrace our special selves in the form of a progressive new traffic system: a specific lane for every kind of driver. It’s all in honor of the show’s 8th and final season, and it’s all presented by Subaru.

Ready to find out who you really are? Match your personality to a lane and hop on the expressway to self-understanding.

Lane 10: Trucks Piled With Junk

Your junk is falling out of your trunk. Shake a tail light, people — this lane is for you.

Lane 33: Twins

You’re like a Gemini, but waaaay more pedestrian. Maybe you and a friend just wear the same outfits a lot. Who cares, it’s just twinning enough to make you feel special.

Lane 27: Broken Windows

Bad luck follows you around and everyone knows it. Your proverbial seat is always damp from proverbial rain. Is this the universe telling you to swallow your pride? Yes.

Lane 69: Filthy Cars

You’re all about convenience. Getting your car washed while you drive is a no-brainer.

Lane 43: Newly Divorced Singles

It’s been a while since you’ve driven alone, and you don’t know the rules of the road anymore. What’s too fast? What’s too slow? Are you sending the right signals? Don’t worry, the breakdown lane is nearby if you need it.

Still can’t find a lane to match your personality? Check out all the videos here. And see the final season of Portlandia this spring on IFC.

Last-Minute Holiday Gift Guide

It’s the final countdown to Christmas and thanks to IFC’s movie marathon all Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, you can revel in classic ’80s films AND find inspiration for your last-minute gifts. Here are our recommendations, if you need a head start:

Musical Instrument

Great analog entertainment substitute when you refuse to give your kid the Nintendo Switch they’ve been drooling over.

Breakfast In Bed

Any significant other or child would appreciate these Uncle Buck-approved flapjacks. Just make sure you’re not stuck on clean up duty.

Cocktail Supplies

You’ll need them to get through the holidays.

Dance Lessons

So you can learn to shake-shake-shake (unless you know ghosts willing to lend a hand).

Comfy Clothes

With all the holiday meals, there may be some…embigenning.

Get even more great inspiration all Christmas Eve and Day on IFC, and remember…